On 1 June 2026, the World Evangelical Alliance released a global statement calling the Church to move away from long-term institutional care and toward family-based solutions for vulnerable children. The statement reflects a growing recognition that children thrive best in families, and that poverty or temporary hardship should never be the reason a child is separated from family when support and community-based alternatives are possible.

For World Without Orphans, this is an encouraging and important moment. WWO was one of the contributors to this statement alongside other global partners, and it echoes what we believe and work toward every day: children need families, and the Church has a vital role to play in strengthening families, supporting family-based care, and helping communities respond in ways that protect children with dignity and love.

The statement also names an urgent reality: many children in orphanages are not actually orphans, but have living parents or extended family who are struggling under poverty or crisis. It calls churches, ministries, and donors to invest in family preservation, foster care, adoption, kinship care, and community-based support instead of long-term institutional care.

Read the full statement here:
A Call to Embrace Family-Based Care: A Statement from the WEA